Pokémon Bloodstone | An Orre Fanfiction

Chapter 70: Self-Destruction

Chalcedony and her friends didn't need to be convinced to take the ferry to Citadark Isle. Rustie couldn't swim or fly with her broken wrist. If one took the ferry, the others would. Chalcedony was, however, reluctant to leave Phenac City without speaking to Wyatt. She insisted she would catch up to her friends. Dirk needed to drive Ruhul home. Rustie stayed regardless. She waited in the hospital cafeteria while Chalcedony nervously asked if she could visit Wyatt.

She was surprised when the answer was an immediate yes. He was apparently expecting her. She wasn't sure whether she was pleased or so anxious she wanted to run away. There was no-one else left on the ward. Wyatt's sisters once called her 'auntie.' Now they hastily disappeared when they saw her. He sat cross-legged with his Espeon as if he was waiting for her. She supposed he was. He sensed these things. Chalcedony sat awkwardly on the chair beside the bed.

'Hi.'

'Good morning.'

'I'm sorry I left.'

'You're still in denial, huh?'

'No... I realise what I lost now.'

'But that's not what I'm talking about. You know it isn't... you're in denial that leaving was the problem.'

'If I'd never left...'

'Maybe the problem was that you told me you never loved me? That you only ever felt sorry for me? That you didn't want me to come with you, because I was a waste of space who'd drag you down? Who'd never make it from waiter to manager, let alone Gym Leader? And I'd spend all my free time reading fortunes at Cail's Impidimp Ready Dinner stand to afford the child support I'd be paying to the 50 different women I knocked up?'

'I didn't...'

'Don't forget that it wasn't that you couldn't afford or didn't want our child. You were too "ashamed" to let a kid have a "gas station horoscope columnist for a father." That one was good, too. But number one was when you gave Kaeden my number so he could tell me to go kill myself so you never had to think about me again. You weren't lying. You never loved me.'

'I know – I know what I said was awful. But I swear I didn't give Kaeden your number. I had no idea he was texting you.'

'You know all I really want is for you to say sorry. That I'm wrong. But you won't. Because you never give people what they want.'

That was true once. It wasn't anymore. So why was it like cold steel clamped Chalcedony's mouth so firmly shut? Why couldn't she give herself what she wanted?

'So if you think you can win me back by coming to rescue me like a princess locked in a tower... get lost, Chalcedony.'

Did she still feel like she was losing a battle? Or was it simply self-destruction? She didn't know, but she said nothing.

'Please give this to Zileh.'

Wyatt left a box on the bed. He picked up his backpack and left. Chalcedony didn't know how long she stared at the floor until a nurse wheeled a new patient in and asked if she was alright. She couldn't respond. She was frozen.

Rustie came looking for her. Chalcedony let her lead her away, but she felt like her soul was severed and suspended over her robotic body. Even the cool wind laced with sand that blasted their faces as Salamence flew them to Gateon Port couldn't slap her awake. Emili waited with Dirk and Zileh at the ferry stop. Ruby Jane was there, too. She came to see the battles atop Citadark Isle. Chalcedony blankly, silently passed Zileh the box.

'What did he say?'

'I couldn't say anything... that's the problem.'

Nasina and Ardine were swimming to Citadark Isle. The disgruntled ferry driver couldn't believe his luck that four challengers and a friend wanted a ride. Emili reached to pass a box to Rustie before the boat departed.

'Good luck! All of you!'

In Zileh's box was a Key Stone and Galladite. Rustie received an Ampharosite. They gleamed in the afternoon sun.

'So,' Dirk said to break the silence, 'The Elite Four use Mega Evolution, huh?'

Rustie couldn't stop staring at her stones. 'Yup. All of them.'

'Sick! This is gonna be so awesome! Y'know, I still have no clue who replaced Lovrina. Don't spoiler me!'

The roaring waves pulsing from Citadark Isle buffeted even the sturdy ferry. Wind screamed all around them. Grey clouds, exploding with rain, choked the sun. Chalcedony took a deep breath to face the distant isle. Its veins of lava that illuminated the artificial night. She let herself self-destruct when she faced the past. She would not self-destruct now she faced the future. She didn't push Ruby Jane away when she put an arm around her.

'You'll shine so bright over this old shithole, he'll wish he gave you another chance. But you'll be long gone.'

Chalcedony said those vile things to Wyatt because she didn't want him to follow her. She couldn't love him, or anyone, unless she left it all behind to discern what was real and what was not. It was a hard lesson, but one that taught him something, too. He wouldn't wish he gave her another chance. She was sure of that now.

Salty sea water sprayed them as the ferry docked. Glittering flags bearing the Gym Badges were tinted orange by the glowing lava. Ace Trainers guarded the steel doors of Victory Road. Ruby Jane couldn't follow. Chalcedony breathed in the faint smell of candy she hugged her. The past was the past. Her friends and her Pokémon were her future... and so was the self she found on her journey that finally neared its end.

Ruby Jane disappeared in the visitors' elevator to the hotel. The challengers took out their Badge cases. Before Chalcedony turned, she took a step towards the furious waves gleefully whipped up by the first member of the Elite Four, Chobin. She was soaked from head to toe. Her hair stuck to her face. She searched her mind for lyrics whenever she wasn't thinking about something else, but she never came any closer to writing a song about her physical or emotional journey. That was when the idea struck, all at once, like the wave that almost knocked her down.

'Challengers! Only those who hold all eight Gym Badges of Orre may enter Victory Road!'

Their Badges glinted in the glow of the lava. The Ace Trainers examined them.

'That is Emili's Machine Badge! Hebon's Net Badge! Cassia's Pickaxe Badge! Cail's Gem Badge! Wyatt's Crystal Ball Badge! Willie's Road Badge! Agrev's Skyscraper Badge! Justy's Palm Badge!'

They stood aside. 'You may pass!'

***

The International Police guided every force in Orre to search for Ein, Theta, Ardos and Nascour. Sherles and Johnson couldn't believe their luck when they found Nascour alone and unconscious in the motel room. He was locked in Pyrite Jail's most secure cell. When doctors checked on him, there were high concentrations of booze and cocaine in his blood. No passcode protected the P★DA in his pocket. In the few messages that hadn't been deleted, he and Ardos were disgusted that Ein was on his way out of Orre via Highway 2.

Indeed, his G4LLG0 plates were spotted at the Outskirt Stand. Customers filmed him hastily refilling his car before screeching away without paying. When Nascott City's police chief, Harley, caught up, all that was left of the car was a pile of ashes. A suited woman sobbed that Ein stole her car.

Harley was called back out as soon as he dropped the woman at the police station. Dakim and his Pokémon were rampaging. Windows shattered. A monument crashed down. Willie and his Gym Trainers escorted everyone in the buildings and streets to safety. Squealing sirens joined the chaos. Police surrounded Dakim. He casually sat to light a cigarette on the pile of his wreckage.

'This is the end of the line, Dakim. You're under arrest.'

'Dahahaha! Cipher has to go out with a bang!'

He didn't resist when he was shoved, with difficulty because of his hulking size, into the back of Harley's car. Meanwhile, Pyrite Police were forced to transfer Nascour to hospital. He was on the verge of death. Looker questioned Dakim about what was going on, but he only cackled and repeated that Cipher had to go out with a bang; as if he didn't even know what else to say.